As a candidate or an employee, you need to justify the cost of your employment. How can you demonstrate your value? The answer is to quantify, quantify, quantify! You need to be able to prove you can get the job done better and faster than the ‘other guy’ (or other girl!).
Having trouble quantifying? This simple trick will help you quantify ANYTHING on your resume...
If you want to find and keep a great job, you MUST remember this simple equation:

This resume guide is sponsored by The Ladders
The goal of your resume is to get you an interview for the job. Our friends at the Ladders, the largest professional career resource, have shared their simple resume guide to improve your interview success rate.

Resume Length

For the majority of professionals, a resume should be two pages total. However, if you have less than 10 years of experience, your resume should be about a page long.

Resume Structure

At the top of your resume, you should list your contact information. At the bottom, you should showcase your education.

Professional Summary

A Professional Summary summarizes your professional goals, experience, and strengths. Here are some things you should include in your Professional Summary:
Job titles: Think about what types of jobs you would consider for your next role, then list 3-5 job titles you would accept. Don’t worry if you haven’t had this job in the past. The important part is to make sure it’s a logical next step for you in your career.
Professional skills: After you’ve listed out the types of jobs you would accept, think about the skills you’d need to leverage in those jobs. List 4-6 relevant skills that you possess. However, don’t list skills that are obvious or assumed.
Accomplishments: List 3-6 phrases that outline your past achievements.

Work History

In your Work History, you should provide a chronological list of your professional experience, beginning with your most recent role. After you list the names of each company, dates of employment, and job titles for each role, use bullet points to distribute the following information:

Your most recent/important job (8 bullet points)

Your next job (8 bullet points)

Your next two jobs (4 bullet points each)

Everything else (10 bullet points total)

TIP: Instead of using static verbs like “managed,” “my responsibilities included,” and so on in your bullet points, include a “success verb.” Here are some examples of success verbs:

Achieved

Contributed

Delivered

Exceeded

Gained

Improved

Introduced

Optimized

Sold

When it comes to listing out your accomplishments, it’s critical to showcase a number, dollar, or percentage increase / decrease in each bullet point. Here are some examples:

Potential employers care about the quantifiable outcome of the company. So, think about their goals. Are they looking for more users, more revenue, faster turnaround, higher client satisfaction, all of the above, or something else completely? Understanding their goals will allow you to showcase the right information on your resume.

Your Audience

Think about who will be reading your resume. The hiring manager is wants to know what you can do for him and his team. He will be looking for proof that you know how to handle the type of projects and problems that will arise on this job. If you use the tips in this resume guide, you’ll increase your chances of success.

Free Resume Review

Hopefully, you found this resume guide helpful! Now that you know what to do, check out Ladders free resume reviewer tool and get your resume reviewed in 35 seconds or less. You’ll be on your way to having a powerful new resume.

Whether you’ve remained employed and happy for many years, but now need to find new employment or you’ve had a change of heart on your career, having to take the resume out and update it is a daunting process. It’s even more dreadful when you look at your resume and realize a lifetime has gone by since you’ve updated it.
RELATED: Need to write a resume? Watch these tutorials!
Effective job searching has changed in many ways and as a result, so has the way resumes need to be written. Today’s resumes need to speak to the employer immediately with information that informs them, “Here’s what I can do for you.” At the same time, it needs to be written in a way that the Applicant Tracking System (ATS), the software that scans and ranks your resume, can read. If your resume can’t get a good ranking with the ATS, it’s unlikely to get into the hands of the hiring manager. Use the tips below to get started with updating the old resume:

I’ve heard it said various ways: you get a 5, 7, or 30-second initial resume scan from the hiring manager. I can tell you, when I was an HR manager and had 100 resumes to go through. My initial resume scan was about five seconds long, and I was looking for something to catch my eye.

Writing your resume for the first time in years? Whether you’re aware of it or not, resume trends have changed substantially.
In fact, the document you send out WILL compete with custom-designed, focused resumes for other executives. Therefore, you’ll need to ensure your resume is in line with cutting-edge changes in format and style.
What's changing in recent years and months? Besides the fact an objective isn’t workable anymore, many resumes now contain a splash of color. Several also have a branding headline, or a metrics- and detail-packed summary that replaces tired, overused phrases.